Quoi D’Autre?

Karima Nayt is an Algerian dancer and singer whose peripatetic CV seems to have taken her to Sweden, where she has recorded this opus of songs. The arrangement of the opening track is typical and very classy: a subtle and tense mix of pizzicato and bowed strings, well-judged bass, touches of accordion, light percussion, and restrained interventions by heavy electronic chords. The lyric apparently sympathises with mothers whose children will not necessarily have an easy time, undoubtedly a regrettable matter. The chorus features the even more regrettable device of combining French and English in the phrase ‘laissez-les Say’ Other songs deal with harragas, the Algerian boat people, though without contributing any insights, and generic themes such as peace, the failure of Islam to free women, and the evils of the Egyptian star system, serve as adequate vehicles for the musical mix. It’s all very listenable in a dinner-party-muzak, Gotan Project sort of a way. But the concomitant risk of blandness has not been avoided.